Fbedeeick sholes



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK SHOLES, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURT.

HAND-STAMP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 360,736, dated April 5, 1887.

Application filed November 18, 1886. Serial No. 219,296. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be-it known that -I, FREDERICK SnoLEs, of St. Louis, Missouri, have made a new and useful Improvement in Hand-Stamps, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The improvement consists in providing a single handle with a series of stamp or type bearing frames so shaped and arranged and so connected with the handle that any one of them can be turned into position for use and the others of the series meanwhile relatively adjusted to not interfere with its use, substantially as hereinafter described and claimed, and as illustrated in the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is a view in perspective of the improved stamp, all of the stamp-bearing frames being folded into the plane of the handle. Fig. 2 is a View in perspective from an other standpoint, and showing one of the stamp-bearing frames upturned to one side of the handle; and Figs. 3, 4, 5 are details.

The same letters of reference denote the same parts.

A represents the handle, and B B B B represent the stamp bearing frames. The handle is of a familiar shape, and such as to permit of its being r'eadily grasped in the hand. It is provided with a project-ion or projections to furnish bearings or supports for bearings upon which the stamp-bearing frames may be turned. The most desirable form of such projection is that shown, it being a plate, 0, of metal extending along the under side of the handle and suitably secured thereto, and at its ends turned down to form the ears 0 a in which is held the rod 0'. The stamp-bearing frames depend from and are adapted to be swung upon the rod 0'. They diminish in size, enabling them to be folded successively within each other, as shown in Fig. 1; or any one or more of them, as indicated by the position of the frame B, Fig. 2, may be swung aside to permit the lowest remaining frame (the frame B, as shown in Fig. 2) to be brought into use, for the advantage accruing from the improved device is that it permits several differently worded or designed stamps to be attached to the same handle, and in such manner that any desired one of them can be readily used and as readily displaced and another brought into use, and thus in effect provide several stamps nearly, if not quite, within the compass of a single stamp as hitherto constructed.

An auxiliary feature of the stamp is the means for steadying the frames in their two positions, but so as to permit of their being readily adjusted. This is effected, preferably, in the following manner: D represents a spring attached at d to the handle A, and at its end (1 adapted to press upon the ends I) of the frames when the frames are turned into the plane of the handle and upon the side I) of the frames when they are swung aside. One, a, of the ears, where the rod 0 is held, is slotted vertically, substantially as shown at 0, thereby permitting that end of the rod and frames to be moved the length of the slot toward and from the handle. The ends I) are notched at b, Figs. 1, 2, 3, to engage with a pin, E, that projects from the ear 0*. As long as the stamp is not being impressed in a downward direction, the rod 0, by reason of the gravity of the frames or the act-ion of the spring D, or both the gravity and the spring action, drops in the slot 0 and the notched ends I) of the frames are'disengaged from the pin E, and the frames are free to be swung upon the rod 0 to and from the positions shown, respectively, in Figs. 1 and 2; but when the stamp is impressed upon a surface,

as when used, the action of the spring and the weight of the parts are overcome and the rod 0 is moved upward in the slot 0 and the notched ends I) brought into engagement with the pin E, whereupon the frames B, &c., be come locked and remain fastened in an upright position until the downward pressure upon the stamp is released.

The type F upon the frames B B, &e., may be of rubber or any suitable material, and it may be secured to or incorporated in the frame, as desired, so that when the frame is turned down the type is in position for being stamped upon the surface being printed upon; and in the place of a type a die may be used.

I desire not to be confined to the special form of type-bearing frame shown.

I claim 1. A stamp consisting of a single handle IOO ear 0, the ear 0 slotted at c", the rod 0, and the pin E, substantially as described.

4. The combination of the handle A, the nest of stampbearing frames B B, &c., the

ear 0, the slotted ear 0 the rod 0', the spring 15 D, and the pin E, substantially as described.

FREDERICK SHOLES. Vitnesses:

C. D. MOODY, N. B. ANDERSON. 

